IP ratings: what IP68 was measured on, and why it is not a promise
The short answer
An IP rating has two digits: dust, then water. IP68 means fully dust tight and tested in fresh water beyond one metre, under a manufacturer's stated conditions. It was measured once, on a brand new sealed device, in still fresh water at a fixed temperature. It is not a promise about your phone today.
Reading the two digits
So IP67 and IP68 differ only in the water half, and the 8 is not a fixed depth. The standard requires the manufacturer to state the conditions, which is why one IP68 phone is rated to 1.5 metres for 30 minutes and another to 6 metres for 30 minutes, and both are honestly IP68.
Every model page on this site prints the exact wording where the manufacturer publishes it, rather than just the rating, because the rating on its own tells you less than people assume.
| Digit | What it covers | Common values on phones |
|---|---|---|
| First | Solids and dust | 5 is dust protected, 6 is fully dust tight |
| Second | Water | 7 is immersion to 1 metre for 30 minutes, 8 is deeper, to the manufacturer's stated depth |
| X | Not tested | IPX8 means water tested, dust not rated at all |
The conditions the test is run under
Still, fresh water, at a controlled temperature, with a brand new device, for a fixed time, in a laboratory. That is the test.
None of those conditions describe a real accident. The sea is salt, which is far more aggressive and conductive. A pool is chlorinated. A pint is sugary. A washing machine adds mechanical agitation and heat, which the test explicitly does not include. A hot shower adds steam, and steam gets past seals that stop liquid water.
This is why manufacturers themselves exclude liquid damage from warranty on devices they advertise as water resistant, and it is not the contradiction it looks like. The rating describes a laboratory result, not a guarantee about the Irish Sea.
It degrades, and nobody tells you when
The seal is adhesive and rubber. Both harden with age, both are affected by heat, and both are stressed every time the phone is dropped, sat on or left on a dashboard. A three-year-old phone that has never been opened does not have the seal it left the factory with.
There is no indicator for this and no way to test it outside a laboratory. The phone will not tell you the day it stopped being water resistant, and neither will we, because nobody can.
That is the honest position and it is why the advice is the same for a new phone and an old one: treat water resistance as a margin of safety for accidents, not as permission.
What a repair does to it
Opening a phone means cutting the adhesive seal. We refit with fresh adhesive, which restores a real physical seal that keeps rain, splashes and a wet counter out. What we will not tell you is that the original rating is back, because there is no way for us or for any independent shop in Ireland to test that.
A manufacturer restores a rating by pressure testing the device after the repair with equipment built for the model. Independent shops do not have that, and anybody claiming to restore IP68 without it is claiming something they cannot demonstrate.
Also worth knowing: the seal is already broken the moment the glass cracks, whether or not you can see where. A cracked phone is not a sealed phone, and that is true before anybody opens it.
Practical rules that follow from all this
- Rain, splashes and wet hands: fine on a phone with an intact rating
- Deliberate swimming and diving photos: not worth it on a phone you cannot replace
- Salt water and anything sugary: rinse in fresh water, then treat as urgent
- Never charge a wet phone. The port is the one place liquid and current meet
- Do not use a hot air dryer. Heat pushes moisture further in and stresses the board
- A cracked screen means the seal is gone. Treat the phone as unrated from that moment
Common questions.
No. It is water resistant under stated laboratory conditions: still fresh water, controlled temperature, a brand new device, for a fixed time. That is not a swimming pool, the sea, or a phone three years into its life.
Because the rating describes a laboratory test rather than a guarantee, and the seal degrades with age and heat in a way nobody can measure from outside. Manufacturers exclude it for the same reason we do.
Treat it as not. We reseal with fresh adhesive, which keeps rain and splashes out, and no independent shop in Ireland can pressure test a device to confirm the original rating.
Only the water half. IP67 is immersion to one metre for thirty minutes; IP68 is deeper, to whatever depth and time the manufacturer states. Both are fully dust tight.
Yes, mildly, and act on it. Corrosion starts immediately and progresses. Phones that survived a soaking often fail one to three weeks later, and that gap is the corrosion catching up.
Where this leads.
Next in water and physical damage.
Something actually broken? Bring it in.
Free diagnostic, a firm price before any work, and a 360-day warranty on every completed repair.
Book a repair 24/7 · No fix, no fee · 360-day warranty · Free diagnostic